George Orwell’s renown book “ Animal Farm” has been praised for its delicate way of criticizing communism during the Russian Revolution besides this, there is another underlying theme which Edmun Burke quotes very well: “It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph”. George Orwell uses characters such as Boxer, Clover, and Benjamin to demonstrate that all it takes is a good man doing nothing, for evil to win. One animal which is considered a ‘good’ character is Boxer. Boxer is the male horse on the farm, who always is hard working and has become the role model on the farm. As the book says, “Boxer was the admiration of everybody.” Boxer is a hardworking character, with the right intentions, who most of the animals look up to. He has the qualities of what Edmun Burke calls a “good man”. Despite his potential as a good leader, leaders with evil intentions still rise to power. Napoleon, one of the pigs on the farm, rises to power and does things that are beneficial for himself. Like allowing himself and the pigs to eat the apples, sleep in beds and have ...
George Orwell uses power corrupts as a theme for Animal Farm. Orwell defines “power corrupts” as a distortion of ideals and practices to legitimize the power of a particular group or person. Orwell uses the pigs, and specifically Napoleon, to show how power is gained and then corrupted. “By the time he (Snowball) had finished speaking, there was no doubt as to which way the vote would go… Napoleon stood up… uttered a high-pitched whimper… and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn.” (52,53) George Orwell’s message that power corrupts is shown through pigs rise to power, Napoleon’s takeover, and Napoleon’s dictatorship.
In the middle of the 1930s, Adolf Hitler began his rise to power in Germany, initiating the start of the Second World War and spread fear across Western Europe. During this time period, George Orwell began writing his novella, Animal Farm, which has been said to represent the events of the communist revolution; yet according to an analysis of the new historic lens, no book, no matter the style, can escape the hindrance of social context; proving that the air surrounding the war, impacted the literature written in this time. While it may not be about World War Two, Animal Farm, like all other writings was impacted by its surroundings. An analysis of George Orwell’s Animal Farm reveals that his work, being written in the 1940s, was greatly influenced by the events surrounding World War Two, which took place across all of Europe.
A wise boar, Old Major, expresses a dream of a world where animals live with no human oppression to the rest of the animals in Manor Farm. However, only three days after his speech, he dies, leaving three younger pigs to take over his place and lead the other animals toward Major’s dream. They create the Seven Commandments of Animalism, which set values against acting human-like, and paint them on the wall of the barn. One night, the animals succeed in rebelling against Mr. Jones, the owner of the farm. Initially, farming goes well after the rebellion. However, one of the power-hungry pigs, Napoleon, begins to run a totalitarian dictatorship with an eloquent pig, Squealer, by his side. He also trains puppies, whom he takes from their parents, into vicious guard dogs and uses them to enforce his plans. One by one, the Seven Commandments are broken and altered by Napoleon, who gradually acts more and more human-like. Finally, only one rule remains on the barn wall, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (Orwell 133). Napoleon and the other pigs eventually walk upright, wear clothing, indulge in alcohol, and even sleep on beds (all of which were originally forbidden in the Seven Commandments), while the other animals work all day with little food. By the end of the book, the other farm animals can no longer tell the difference between the pigs and humans when other human farmers are invited over for dinner. “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which” (Orwell 139).
The cynical act of deceiving the less clever is, in fact, the gracious act of conveying a “truth” to the same latter group. This ideal is constantly formulated by a central government for the sole purpose of maintaining the classes at the status quo. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, an allegorical satirical novel, the subject of Orwell’s satire is the byproduct of a revolution with Communist roots symbolized by a rebellion on a farm by the inhabited creatures. Two pigs from the animals, Snowball and Napoleon, self-establish themselves over the rest of their animals due to their superior intelligence. Being symbols of actual leaders, Snowball being Leon Trotsky while Napoleon being Joseph Stalin, history tells the reader what will occur. Therefore, after Napoleon ultimately usurps Snowball’s power by driving him out, Napoleon ultimately commences, like Stalin, the deterioration of the lives of the masses. Similar to Stalin utilizing propaganda, Napoleon uses another pig, Squealer, eloquent in speech to address the rest of the animals and convey the “party line”. The ability of Squealer to twist the actual meaning of Napoleon’s actions are through misinforming and employing pathos on the rest; but the lack of intelligence and memory from the animals also contributes to the distortion of facts.
The animals on Manor Farm gather to discuss Major's dream on his plans for a Rebellion against the humans.
one of the leaders of the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin like Napoleon was not a good speaker, cared deeply about power, and he killed all that opposed him. They both were extremely great at promising wonderful lies. One huge conflict that I discovered while reading this novel is over power, the human beings versus the animals on the farm and later in the story the animals versus the other animals. The animals and the humans are always fighting each other. The pigs were trying to convince other animals not to take orders from the humans. Old Major which was the original creator of the animal revolution says “Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever”. Old Major basically is the one who in my opinion created the idea of all humans being their major problem. Old Major also says “There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word- Man”. This is a perfect example of how he strongly believes that their life would be much better without human beings. He continues to try to convince the animals how terrible humans are by saying “Man is the only creature who consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all animals”. Old Major sang this song to the farm animals “Beasts of England!
In George Orwell’s famous allegorical novel of the evils and inhumanities that are intertwined in totalitarian states and their government methods and representatives called animal farm he does more than merely expresses the torment and fear the Russian people endured under the rule of Joseph Stalin. he reveals the painful truth about the ever present quality of frailty and treachery amongst the human race .societal structures, and individual values through the symbolic characters, events, and even the inner thought of the reader as they analyze the ever evolving complexity that is Animal farm.
The story of Animal Farm is not just one of a bunch of farm animals getting along and enjoying each other. Rather, the tale gives us insight into who is the real villain during the Russian Revolution, as the farm animals represent certain groups George Orwell, in Animal Farm, reveals the villain as a good character in the beginning of the novel, but as we get deeper into the story we figure out that the good animal has been the greedy, self-centered, and cruel villain the whole time. Orwell exposes the injustices that occurred under the rule of Joseph Stalin, through the act of Napoleon becoming a dictator who is lying to the animals and switching the rules for the farm.
Often times in a communist society, a leader’s use of language can lead to abuse of power. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the farm leaders, the pigs, use unknown language, invoke scare tactics, and create specific laws, thereby enabling them to control other animals, to suit their greedy desires, and to perform actions outside their realm of power. Because of the pigs’ use of broad language, implementation of scare tactics, and creation and manipulation of laws, they are able to get away with avoiding laws and convincing other animals into believing untrue stories and lies that are beneficial to the pigs.
As soon as Old Major had died Napoleon took his place as the leader of
Absolute power leads to the corruption of government. In Animal Farm, when a group of mistreated animals rebels against their cruel farm owner, two intelligent pigs on the farm take it upon themselves to lead the animals jointly. However, due to the animals' greedy co-leader Napoleon who dominates that power, the pigs' leadership turns into a corrupt power-hungry government that causes the entire farm system to collapse. In order to secure a life of luxury for Napoleon and his fellow pigs, Napoleon (with Squealer as his spokesman)uses language that intimidates, language that distorts the truth, and language that appeals to the emotions of the animals in order to manipulate gullible animals of Animal Farm.
Through the novel, Animal Farm, George Orwell tries to instruct certain lessons about force, and defilement. He utilizes the characters as a part of Animal Farm to make a moral story of the scandalous Russian Revolution. Utilizing the tale of the Russian Revolution he makes ethics that can be taken from his story. Ethics of the story incorporate those, for example, with force comes debasement, lack of awareness is not happiness, and that diligent work does not generally pay off.
The animals in awe of the difficulty of telling from which was man or pig, they went back to the barn, gathered in the barn and were all about to go into their own stalls until the slightly blind Clover said, “Friends please wait.” The animals stopped and looked at Clover that was giving a saddened expression that made most of the animals walk over except for the hens and roosters walked to the chicken coop with their baby chicks following except for two chicks that walked over to Clover. Clover looked at all the animals gather and gave a serious stern look, “there was once a time when this barn brought joy to me and all of the others on this barn. It wasn’t when the humans were in charge or when Napoleon became our leader. Snowball on the other hand was the leader that actually didn’t become a dictator of this farm and wanted greatness for all and not just for the pigs and
The author of the novel “Animal Farm” George Orwell once wrote “every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been against totalitarianism”. Similarly “Animal Farm” also highlight about the totalitarianism. As all other revolutions, the revolution of animal farm also arises with the dream for a better and more perfect society which transfers in to a totalitarian night mare with the urge for the power in the minds of animals, who symbolizes the people who live in society. “Animal Farm is a satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism during the Stalin era. In the novel Orwell uses pigs to represent the ruling class and throughout the story he represent how the ruling class people spread and improve their power employing pigs as the characters.
During 1917, Russia underwent one of the most famous revolutions in history; with the sole intention to improve the nation. However, the original plan for the revolution was quickly put aside as the new leaders began to abuse their power; this brought on more than two years of slaughter and economic decrease. Within the text Animal Farm, George Orwell portrays the working class animals as naïve, while also having a lack of personal awareness; the pigs, however, were corrupted and manipulative. The pig’s hypocrisy against their own rules and ideas lead them to become the farms most powerful figure. Nevertheless, none of this would have been possible without the animals constantly turning a blind eye and failing to acknowledge when they were